{"id":57961,"date":"2025-11-18T04:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T04:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/57961\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T04:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T04:58:15","slug":"tesla-wins-bid-to-undo-race-bias-class-action-by-black-factory-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/57961\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla wins bid to undo race bias class action by Black factory workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

California judge says lawsuit can’t proceed as a class actionAnother judge had certified a class of 6,000 workersMultiple cases claim Black workers faced harassmentNov 17 (Reuters) – A California state judge has ruled that more than 6,000 Black workers at Tesla’s (TSLA.O), opens new tab<\/a> flagship assembly plant cannot sue over alleged racial harassment as a class, reversing an earlier ruling in a major victory for CEO Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker.California Superior Court Judge Peter Borkon ruled on Friday, opens new tab<\/a> that the 2017 lawsuit could not move forward as a class action because many of the 200 workers chosen at random to testify ahead of a trial scheduled for 2026 were unwilling to do so.<\/p>\n

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Borkon said he could not trust that the experiences of a smaller sample of workers could be applied to the entire class.<\/p>\n

A different judge had certified the class<\/a> in 2024, but Borkon said that was based on the belief that a trial in the large-scale case would be manageable.<\/p>\n

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. The company has said that it does not tolerate workplace harassment and that it has fired employees who engaged in racial misconduct.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Organ, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said that many of the people who were randomly chosen to testify are low-income workers who cannot afford to miss work to participate in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither together with other victims, or separately, these courageous Black workers will overcome Tesla\u2019s endless delays and continue fighting to hold the company accountable,\u201d Organ said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The named plaintiff, former assembly-line worker Marcus Vaughn, alleged that Black workers at the Fremont, California, factory were subjected to a range of racist conduct including slurs, graffiti and nooses hung at their workstations.<\/p>\n

A trial had been scheduled for next April, two months before a separate trial involving similar claims against Tesla<\/a> by a California state civil rights agency.Tesla is also facing race discrimination claims<\/a> in federal court in California brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws. The company has settled other race discrimination lawsuits<\/a> involving single plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

The case is Vaughn v. Tesla, California Superior Court, Alameda County, No. RG17882082.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Lisa Shumaker<\/p>\n

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n

Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a>\"Daniel<\/a><\/p>\n

Dan Wiessner (@danwiessner) reports on labor and employment and immigration law, including litigation and policy making. He can be reached at daniel.wiessner@thomsonreuters.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California judge says lawsuit can’t proceed as a class actionAnother judge had certified a class of 6,000 workersMultiple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1180,1113,1114,21082,21083,7,9,8,1119,35490,7417,6054,10182,1122,1124,28876,1219,17558,10187,22223,35494,35495,10188,1220,7483,2768,17313,35491,31621,6393,35492,1139,18467,4194,10183,7479,21085,17314,1186,35482,18460,1153,1157,17315,31617,31615,31616,7427,7480,35483,18461,35486,35484,35485,35488,35489,17316,7481,2777,35487,7436,29855,7433,2775,1181,7432,35493],"class_list":{"0":"post-57961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-amers","9":"tag-aut","10":"tag-auto","11":"tag-bact","12":"tag-biz","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-california-headlines","15":"tag-california-news","16":"tag-carm","17":"tag-case1","18":"tag-civ","19":"tag-class","20":"tag-clj","21":"tag-cmpny","22":"tag-cycs","23":"tag-destlit","24":"tag-destocabsm","25":"tag-destociv","26":"tag-destocls","27":"tag-destocor","28":"tag-destoebec","29":"tag-destoemp","30":"tag-destolit","31":"tag-destousbsm","32":"tag-destousesg","33":"tag-destoustcm","34":"tag-dli","35":"tag-dvrsty","36":"tag-eleav","37":"tag-esg","38":"tag-esgsoc","39":"tag-gen","40":"tag-hrgt","41":"tag-job","42":"tag-judic","43":"tag-legal","44":"tag-mngiss","45":"tag-mpop","46":"tag-namer","47":"tag-nrlinodiv","48":"tag-nrlpaoconl","49":"tag-pol","50":"tag-publ","51":"tag-racr","52":"tag-ratielectrification-zero-emmision","53":"tag-ratisupply-chain","54":"tag-ratisustainable-ev-supply-chain","55":"tag-ratiworkforce","56":"tag-reuters-legal","57":"tag-rsbidiversity-and-inclusion","58":"tag-rsbihuman-rights","59":"tag-rsbilitigation","60":"tag-rsbisocial-impact","61":"tag-rsbiworker-rights","62":"tag-rulesmagnificent-seven","63":"tag-rulesmarkets-tesla","64":"tag-soci","65":"tag-sustainable-business","66":"tag-topcmb","67":"tag-topicbusiness-elon-musk","68":"tag-topicrati-strategy","69":"tag-topicrati-supply-chain-manufacturing","70":"tag-topicworld-us-california","71":"tag-topnws","72":"tag-us","73":"tag-usaca","74":"tag-wpay"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}